THE ALLIGATOR GAR 


BY 
ALFRED C. WEED 


Assistant Curator of Fishes 


FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 


CHICAGO 
1923 


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FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 
DEPARTMENT OF ZOOLOGY 
CHICAGO, 1923 


LEAFLET NUMBER 5 


The Alligator Gar 


Along the shore of the Gulf of Mexico and extend- 
ing several hundred miles up the Mississippi River is 
a narrow strip of country which it is hardly correct 
to describe as either land or water. Most of the year 
it is out of the water or partly flooded but a rise 
of only a few feet in the rivers or an extra high tide 
may submerge large areas of it. Farther inland it 
rises slowly but even at St. Louis, a day’s travel (700 
miles) away from the Gulf, it is only, comparatively, 
a few feet above tidewater. 

The streams of this region are mostly narrow and 
usually deep. The banks are composed of light mud 
or sand or of lighter material derived from the decay 
of the leaves or plants that grow in or fall in them. 
In a few hours the current may cut through a bend 
and leave a large part of the stream as a “horseshoe 
pond” or it may even cut through so as to reverse the 
direction of the current. | 

Many strange creatures, such as the Water Tur- 
key, the Alligator Snapping Turtle, the Moccasin 
Snake and big catfish live in the swamps, lakes and 
‘-bayous. This region is also the home of two strictly 
American creatures, the Alligator and the Alligator 
Gar or Great Gar. The Alligator has a small cousin 
in rivers of China but the gars are strictly American. 
The Alligator Gar is a great fish which probably owes 
its name to the fact that it is provided with a shining 
armor as hard and strong as the bony plates of the 
Alligator. 


[57] 


2 FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 


Most of the streams, ponds and bayous of this 
region are dark in color, either because the waters 
carry a load of mud or because they are stained a deep 
brown with the leachings from the soil. There area 
few clear streams flowing over bottoms of sand or 
gravel, and it was in one of these that a friend had his 
first experience with an Alligator Gar. Walking along 
the bank, he stopped and looked down into the clear 
water of a large pool. Little by little he was able to 
pick out objects on the bottom and soon he realized 
that the things which looked so much like logs and 
posts were great fish. It did not take him long to re- 
turn to the house and get a spear. 


The fish were still in sight as he returned and he 
lost no time in striking at the nearest one. He seemed 
to miss the fish and strike a rock or something else that 
damaged the spear. After a few more trials he found 
that the injury came from striking the fish and that 
he could hardly startle them. The one he might strike 
would move a little but the others paid no attention to 
him. Later he tried to shoot one of the fish but even 
that did not seem to injure it very much. 


Even those who do not like gars may find them 
extremely interesting. Their appearance is so differ- 
ent from that of most other fishes living today that 
it attracts attention. The geologist and the zoologist 
find that they resemble the fishes that lived in past ages 
much more than they do any that are known now. 
Their family tree goes far back before it unites them 
with the ancestors of other fishes. 

There are about four species of gars, three of them 
being found in the United States. The southern limit 
of distribution is not well known. The Tropical Gar 
(Lepisosteus tropicus), if it is different from the 
Alligator Gar, seems to be confined to waters near the 
coast in Central Amertca. The Alligator Gar, or Great 


[58] 


THE ALLIGATOR GAR 3 


Gar (Lepisosteus tristoechus), is found in Cuba and 
along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. It is common 
in the Mississippi River about to St. Louis and is often 
seen as far as the mouth of the Illinois River. Some 
are taken in the latter stream, almost every year, about 
as far up as Beardstown, Illinois. The Short-Nosed 
Gar (Lepisosteus platostomus) is found mostly in the 
Mississippi Valley region and in Lake Erie. The Long- 
Nosed Gar, or Billfish, (Lepisosteus osseus) is found 
in all suitable waters from the Gulf of Mexico to the 
Great Lakes, including the Atlantic Coastal Plain. 
They are fairly common market fish in parts of North 
Carolina. 


There are several groups of living fishes which 
wear coats of mail. The Sea-Horses and the Pipefishes 
have a body covering of bony rings which lock to- 
gether. The Trunkfishes have encased themselves in 
solid boxes of bone, much as the turtles have done. 
Many of the common fishes of the open ocean have 
strong series of bony plates along the sides of the tail. 
The sturgeons have rows of bony shields along the back 
and sides. Many of the catfishes of South America 
have similar protection. In two groups, the Bichirs 
and the Gars, the armor consists of a series of inter- 
locking plates, smooth and shining, and hard as flint. 
The Bichirs are found in central and northern Africa 
and are related to the gars only inasmuch as both are 
the last representatives of the common fishes of ages 
long past. 


The smooth, shining “ganoid” plates of the gars 
are composed of a hard outer layer much like the 
enamel of a tooth in structure and having a similar 
origin in the outer layer of the skin. Within is a softer 
structure much like the dentine of a tooth. These 
plates are so hard that it is, at least, a common story 
to tell of seeing fire fly from the edge of the axe 


[59] 


4 FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 


when trying to chop through the skin of a gar. Each 
plate has a long point which lies under the edge of the 
next one and is bound to it by the tough skin (Figs. 1 
and 2). This gives great strength without stiffness. 
One who may see a dead gar on the bank or watch 
a living one floating quietly at the surface is likely to 
get the idea that it is rather stiff and awkward in its 
movements. When at rest the gar—any gar—lies 


Fig. 1. 
Bony plates of Alligator Gar, showing how they fit together. 
Natural size. 

quite straight, with none of the body movements of 
fish of less ancient lineage. The only sign of life is the 
movement of the balancing fins, to prevent being over- 
turned by little currents in the water. All this is 
changed when the fish moves. The swimming gar 
is almost as sinuous as an eel. It may end its dash 
with a long, straight, pikelike shoot; but it uses its 
whole body in the exertion of starting. 

The Short-Nosed Gar and the Tropical Gar do not 
reach a length much more than three feet. The Long- 
Billed Gar reaches a length of about six feet. The 
Alligator Gar is much larger. Even at a length of six 
feet it is much larger than a six-foot “Billfish.” 


[ 60] 


THE AMERICAN ALLIGATOR 5 


The Great Gar is one of the largest fish in the 
fresh waters of North America. It may not be quite as 
large as some of the sturgeons that come into the bays 
along the Atlantic coast, but they are sea fish and > 
seldom run up above tidewater. So little is known of 
this great fish that it is hard to get a true idea of its 
size. Estimates in the books run as high as twenty 
feet. Talks with fishermen along the river seem to 


Fig. 2. 
Bony plates of Alligator Gar, showing differences in size 


and form in different parts of the body. 
Natural size. 


show that a gar ten feet long is far beyond the average 
size. Below are given some of the records: 

Dr. D. S. Jordan says the fish reaches a length of 
twenty feet but gives no record of specimens actually 
measured. 

Mr. George Powers Dunbar, writing about 1840, 
said that gars of twelve to fourteen feet in length 
were “often seen in the Mississippi.” 

Mr. Percy Viosca, Jr., speaks of a record of a ten- 
foot specimen as “eye measurement.” 

Dr. L. Hussakof tells of seeing gars over nine feet 
long being cut up for food at Moon Lake, Mississippi. 


[61] 


6 FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 


Dr. S. E. Meek gives the length as ten to twelve 
feet but gives no record of actual measurement of 
specimens. 

Jordan and Evermann give the length as eight to 
ten feet. 

_ The New Orleans Times-Picayune tells of a speci- 
men 8 feet long in the Louisiana State Museum. 

A specimen eight feet, seven inches long was 
killed at Naples, Ill., early in the summer of 1922. 

A specimen killed at Grafton, Illinois, early in 
1922 weighed 87 pounds and was almost exactly six 
feet long. 

Another, killed at Grafton some years ago was 
about seven and a half feet long and weighed 176 
pounds. 

One, six feet, six and a half inches to base of tail, 
was killed at Grafton by Mr. Sherman Reubel. 

A specimen, seven feet, two inches long, is in the 
Illinois State Museum at Springfield, III. 

One, five and a half feet long, is in the museum 
of Illinois University. 

Two specimens, mounted, and one skeleton, each 
about seven feet long are in Field Museum. 

An old record in Forest and Stream gives length 
seven feet, four inches, girth forty inches and weight 
27414 pounds. 

Dr. L. Hussakof tells of one six and a half feet 
long that swallowed a Short-Nosed Gar exactly one- 
third its length. 

The habits of fishes are very largely determined 
by the conditions under which they live. Many of 
the species of the open ocean, especially relatives of 
the Mackerel, are strong, swift swimmers which may 
travel long distances at the same high speed without 
stopping to rest. There are no fishes of this type in 
our fresh water streams and lakes. The nearest ap- 


[ 62] 


THE ALLIGATOR GAR 7 


proach to it is perhaps found in the Lake Trout and 
some other species in the larger lakes. They hunt 
their prey in the open water and catch it because they 
have greater speed. 

The Black Bass, Brook Trout, and similar fishes 
lie in wait until their food floats or swims within strik- 
ing distance. They are able to move with tremendous 
speed for a few feet but are seldom called upon to 
make any sustained effort. Their habit of living in 
very rapid water has led many to believe that they are 
fighting the current all the time. In reality they spend 
most of their lives in sheltered spots where their only 
effort must be to keep their balance as they are touched 
by little currents in different directions. 


The Pike, Pickerel, Muskalonge and gars have 
still a different habit. They lie quietly at or near the 
surface of quiet bays or lakes, usually in places where 
there is a growth of weeds to hide them. There is no 
swift current to fight at any time. They may lie almost 
perfectly motionless for hours, always poised for a 
quick dash at any moving object. At an alarm, they 
may dash away a few feet but in their ordinary life 
they very seldom swim more than a hundred feet with- 
out stopping to rest and look around. 

The food of any fish bears such a close relation to 
its habits that we can not discuss one without the other. 
If we know one we can usually make a guess as to the 
other. 


Most of the observations on the food and habits 
of the gars have been made on the species common in 
the northeastern United States (the Long-Billed Gar). 
Because all the species have much the same general 
appearance, it has been assumed that they are alike 
in habits. This is a rather dangerous assumption. 
We are not even sure that the same fish has the same 
habits in different places. 


[63 ] 


8 FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 


Because one species of gar is very destructive to 
fishes in the Great Lakes region, it has been supposed 
that all gars eat only living food, which has proved its 
life by moving where the fish could see it. Thus, we 
find in the books such statements as: “It is very 
destructive to all sorts of food fishes.” Occasionally 
we may find a note in some obscure place which shows 
other food habits. Thus, Jordan*, in giving a list of 
fishes of the lowland streams, says: “In Perdido Bay 
ia Se whi fresh water Alligator Gars and marine sharks 
compete for the garbage thrown over from the Pensa- 
cola wharves.” The more common idea of this great 
fish, however, has been similar to that of George 
Powers Dunbar**: 


“Possessed of an exceedingly ravenous appetite, he snaps at 
and devours everything which comes in his reach, and yet there 
are times when the most dainty morsel will scarcely tempt him. 
Early in the morning the water is continually broken by him as 
he rises to seize the floating insects, or small fish swimming 
upon the surface; but, as the sun ascends, if on the feed, he takes 
to the deeper water, slowly moving along in search of *his prey, 
and occasionally rising and rolling on the surface in sport. Tired 
of the chase, he may be seen basking his huge and motionless 
form in some sunny nook, the shoals of mullet frisking and frol- 
licking around him unheeded. Rapid, current or pool, the clear 
running spring stream, the sluggish bayou, the pond, or the 
salt creek, all are familiar to him, but he particularly affects the 
deep still "bayou, or the entrance of some sluggish stream into 
a bright, clear and dashing current. Stand on the little bar 
formed by the junction of the last mentioned, and you may see 
him pass and repass, plunging into the current after a small fish, 
diving under the rooty bank, and rolling in fun on the top of the 
dark bayou, and snapping his jaws together, as if the livelong 
day were only created for him to rollick in. The ringing steel 
launched from the sturdy arm of the fisherman glances harm- 
lessly from his more than steel-clad body, the river robber rolls 
his huge form through the deep river, now rising like a porpoise, 
and now with noiseless movement of a cat swimming slowly to 
the shallows, stealing along through the bright green leaves of 
the beautiful nelumbium to surprise the sunny perch or sleeping 
pike, or suddenly attracted by a passing shoal of sardine or 
mullet, he dashes like light to their center, his capacious and 
horrid jaws wide open and his sinewy tail dealing death on every 


*Guide to the Study of Fishes, I, page 313. 
** American Naturalist, Vol. XVI, page 384, May, 1882. 


[ 64] 


Pes oe 


THE ALLIGATOR GAR 9 


side. The wary bass retires to his shady nook, and the nee 
patasa dive deeper into their rooty recesses at his epproscty and 

woe betide the unlucky wight who trails his well-fil ed string of 
bass at the stern of his pirogue; the river robber is sure to 
attempt a rescue, and well will it be for the angler, as seizure 
once made, if he have a single fish left, of his morning’s sport.” 


The New Orleans Times-Picayune, Sunday, Janu- 
ary 22, 1922, carried a long article on this fish. The 
writer tried to prove that the Alligator Gar is much 
more dangerous to human life, in the waters it inhabits, 
than is the “Man-Eater Shark.” Many instances 
were given of persons being killed or injured by these 
fish. Mr. Percy Viosca, Jr., has discussed this point 
very fully and his conclusions are that the Alligator 
Gar is almost strictly a scavenger. He claims that it 
never seizes a bait which is moving and does not take a 
quiet bait unless it has a strong odor. His explanation 
of the cases where persons have been seized are that 
they had been feeding the gars fish offal and then held 
their hands or feet in the water. 

According to Mr. Viosca, the gars are capable of 
some domestication and are frequently fed daily at a 
certain point. Under such conditions, a gar might 
easily make a mistake and seize a hand or foot where 
it expected to find food. 

Mr. Viosca says that game fish will bite freely 
within a few feet of the point where gars are feeding 


-- on garbage and that it is not uncommon for small boys 


to be swimming there also. He even tells that one of 
his friends once unhooked a six-foot gar which had 
taken a bait, boy and gar both in the water, and then 
took a ride as the fish dashed away. 

Mr. Viosca’s account of the habits of the gar does 
not match exactly with that of Mr. Dunbar. The key 
to the difficulty may be found in the statements of a 
friend who lived many years on the banks of the IIli- 
nois River. He says that the Short-Nosed Gar com- 
monly fed on the offal from the fish houses and that it 


[ 65] 


10 FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 


was a very common thing to see them waiting for fish 
waste to be thrown overboard. His fish of the same 
species, from the same locality, when kept in an 
aquarium will eat nothing but living minnows and he 
has never been able to get them to take any dead food 
of any kind. 

It is probable that the accounts of Mr. Dunbar 
and of Mr. Viosca are both correct. Where garbage 
is plentiful the fish eat garbage. In other places they 
eat whatever they can catch. If the gars are in the 
habit of eating garbage at a certain point, it would 
hardly seem wise to smear one’s hands with fish refuse 
and hold them in the water just there. 


Man is so constituted that he considers the value 
of other living things solely on a basis of his own com- 
fort or convenience. A fish is useful or valuable to 
him only as he can see some direct relation to his needs 
or pleasures. On this basis, much has been said 
against the gars and very little in their favor. The 
fish culturist says that they eat the food needed for his 
young fish, and, later, that they eat the young fish. 
The commercial fisherman says that they tear his nets 
and are not salable if he does land them. The angler 
says they are not game and that they eat the fish he 
wants to catch. These statements are correct, so far 
as they go. To find the value of the gars we must look 
at other points. 


Gars are occasionally used as food. Dr. Meek 
found them sold in the markets at Tampico, Mexico, 
and considered good food. Dr. Hussakof found them 
being salted and smoked for food at Moon Lake, 
Mississippi. Dr. Smith, in his report on the fishes of 
North Carolina tells of their being sold in the market 
at New Bern. There are some other reports of the sale 
of these fishes, usually smoked, for food. Dr. Smith 
also tells, on the authority of Dr. Capehart, that, 


[ 66] 


THE ALLIGATOR GAR ll 


before the use of steel plows, the mould-boards of 
wooden plows were sometimes covered with gar skin. 
Gars are sometimes used for fertilizer and there is 
sometimes a local demand for their oil. 


Gars are not usually considered game fish. They 
do not often take artificial baits readily and very few 
sportsmen try to catch them. Mr. Dunbar told of his 
experience in fishing for Alligator Gars but did not 
tell what kind of bait he used. Mr. Viosca tells that if 
a strong-scented cut bait is used it is easy to get the 
big fish on a hook but intimates that it is not possible 
to land them on anything less than shark tackle. At 
this distance, it looks as though a large Alligator Gar 
should give a very interesting fight to anyone who 
might fish for it with cut bait on Tarpon tackle. While 
the Alligator Gar is not likely to do so much jumping 
as a Tarpon, large specimens should give a very inter- 
esting struggle. 


The total value of gars as food, as game or as 
scavengers may not be very great but it is, at least, 
worth mentioning. Their value to the pear! button in- 
dustry is probably as great, but the connection is so 
obscure that it has not been suspected until very re- 
cently. The relation between a pearl-handled knife 
and an Alligator Gar may not seem very close and yet 
the best shells for making knife handles and other 
novelties could not live without the gars. 


To understand this point we must review the 
prominent points in the life history of the fresh water 
clam. The eggs of this creature, after being fertilized, 
pass into the gills of the mother and remain there until 
they have hatched. The young are called “glochidia” 
and do not look much like the river clams we know. 
The shells are of different shapes and often have long, 
sharp teeth on the edge. 

At the proper season the glochidia leave the brood 


[67] 


12 FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 


pouch in their mother’s gills and pass out into the 
‘water. There they drift around at the mercy of the 
currents until they die or find a proper place to anchor 
themselves. Some of them can anchor to the fins of 
almost any kind of fish. Others can fasten to the gills 
of almost any fish. Most of the more valuable 
species must reach the right place on some particular 
fish. This is the case with the Yellow Sand Shell 
(Lampsilis anodontoides) which Mr. R. L. Barney, 
Director of the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries Biological 
Station at Fairport, Iowa, says: “is without a doubt 
the most valuable shell of the Mississippi drainage 
because of its use in the manufacture of pear] handles 
for knives, razors, etc., and because of its service- 
ability in button manufacture.” This shell must at- 
tach itself to the gills of a gar to pass through this 
next period of its life. 


After it has become properly attached, the flesh 
of the fish grows up around the glochidium and it stays 
there as a true parasite for a time varying from several 
days to several weeks, when its transformation is com- 
plete. At the proper time the flesh around the young 
clam loosens and it falls to the bottom of the stream 
or pond, ready to feed and live like any other of its 
species. 


The Yellow Sand Shell grows to large size. It is 
long and fairly straight. It is of soft, even texture and 
does not split readily into separate layers. It is free 
from color. Apparently it grows very rapidly under 
favorable conditions. Altogether it seems to be one 
of the most promising shells for artificial propagation. 
If it is to be raised for the use of the button factories 
it will be necessary to keep some gars in the breeding 
ponds. However, the stock of gars for this purpose 
does not seem to be in danger of being entirely de- 
stroyed immediately. 


[68 ] 


THE ALLIGATOR GAR 13 


We may sum up the case of the Alligator Gar 
about as follows: Its enemies allege that it is very 
destructive to the game fish that live in the streams 
and ponds with it. They say that it is of no value as 
food for man. Some of them claim that it is very dan- 
gerous to human life. They say it destroys the nets of 
the commercial fishermen. Whether it destroys many 
adult fish or not, it eats a great deal of food that the 
young fish need. 


On the other hand, we may say that it has some 
value as food. It has some value as a game fish and 
this value may increase. It is a scavenger, at least in 
certain localities. In its capacity as a scavenger it may 
injure human beings by mistake and this may be the 
explanation of the actual cases of injury or death. 
It is one of the three species that seem to be neccessary 
for the breeding of the best button shell. 


Not much is known about the breeding of the 
Alligator Gar or about its growth after hatching but 
it is not likely that it is especially different from that 
of the other gars. A very good account of the habits 
of this fish was written almost a hundred years ago by 
Mr. George Powers Dunbar, a forgotten scientist, who 
made some observations about the lower Mississippi. 


Mr. Dunbar says: 


“During the months of December and January the fish seek 
the heads of the still and almost stagnant bayous or the deep 
caves of the sluggish rivers to deposit their spawn. The eggs 
are held suspended in a thick gelatinous transparent substance, 
forming long ropes several inches in diameter, which are hung 
on old snags, roots or branches of trees that have fallen into the 
water. The spawn has much the appearance of that of the frog, 
with the exception of the circular form it assumes, and the size 
of the eggs, which are about as large as No. 4 shot, and of a dark 
— color. The young come forth during the spring, and tiny 
ittle raseals they are, but they grow with astonishing rapidity, 
and by the latter part of August are some fourteen inches in 
length and weigh several ounces; in one year they reach a 
weight of from nine to twelve pounds, and go on increasing to 
several hundreds. Large numbers of these fry are destroyed by 


[69] 


14 FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 


other fish, and well that it is so, otherwise no fish could live 
in any of the rivers for them, the ovaries of a large fish contain- 
ing several hundred thousand eggs.” 


When young gars are first hatched they are very 
different in appearance from the adults. They have 
no bony plates and no long snout. The end of the 
snout projects beyond the rather small mouth and 
bears a patch of suckers which the little fish uses to 
attach itself to anything that seems to offer a safe 
hold. As the fish grows and the jaws are longer this 
patch of suckers is less needed and finally almost dis- 
appears. All that is left of it is the knob at the end 
of the upper jaw. 

In the young gar the fins are indicated only by 
small folds of skin and the slender tail ends in a point. 
After a few days a small fin begins to show on the 
lower side of the tail. As this grows, the tail filament 
turns up more and more and either gets smaller or 
does not grow much until finally it is entirely hidden 
under the skin and scales while the fin, that started 
below, seems to be directly at the end of the body. 
By the time the young gar has reached a length of five 
or six inches it is practically like the adults in form 
but may be different in color. 

The group in Hall 18 represents two of these large 
fish as they might be seen lying near the bottom in a 
quiet pool in a clear stream. In such places, where 
there is little current and where the sunlight can reach 
them, many of these fish may be seen, each facing the 
current and maintaining its position by very slight 
movements of tail or fins. Here they rest, perhaps for 
hours, until they start off on the search for food or 
play. 

ALFRED C.: WEED, 
Assistant Curator of Fishes. 


[70] 


i 
t 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Very little has been published about the Alligator Gar. Most 
of the notices have been technical descriptions or popular accounts 
in newspapers or sporting magazines. In the following list some 
references to articles on other species have been included because 
they illustrate conditions or habits which are probably common 
to all the gars. 


Assott, C. C.—Riverside Magazine, Vol. I, 1867, pages 174-176. 
Science-Gossip, Vol. 8, 1872, pages 268-270. 


In these places the author gives quite different accounts of 
the catching of what seems to be the same fish. In the former 
reference the fish is caught in a shad seine in the Delaware River. 
In the latter, it is killed in Crossweelssen Creek, a tributary of 
the Delaware River, by means of two jasper spear heads found 
on the bank of the creek. The account of the habits is substan- 
tially the same in each case and the two accounts of the killing 
of a large Chub by the gar are just the same. In the former 
article the author tells of seeing a man severely injured by a large 
gar which had been caught in a shad seine. 


Acassiz, A.—Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and 
Sciences, Vol. 14, 1879, pages 65-75, Plates. 
This is a comprehensive technical account of the development 
of the Long-Billed Gar from the time of hatching until] it had 
reached a length of about an inch, 


DuNnBAR, GEORGE Powers—American Naturalist, Vol. XVI, May, 

1882, page 381. 

An account of the life and scientific studies of a man who was 
a keen observer but whose studies, except for a few notes pub- 
lished here, were lost by accident. The notes on the Alligator 
Gar are interesting and of great value. Mr. Dunbar studied fishes 
in the vicinity of New Orleans for about fifteen years beginning 
about. 1835. 


Forses, S. A. AND RicHaARpDSON, R. E.—The Fishes of Illinois, 
Natural History Survey of Illinois, Vol. III, page 35. 


A short technical description and a short account of the 
habitat, habits and uses. 


Hussakor, L.—‘“Copeia,’”’ No. 11, October 15, 1914. 


A short account of the size and food of some Alligator Gars 
observed at Moon Lake, Mississippi, and at the New York 
Aquarium. 


JorpAN, D. S.—“‘A Guide to the Study of Fishes,” 1905, two 
volumes. 
In this work, Dr. Jordan mentions the Alligator Gar in many 
places. 


{71] 


16 FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 


JorRDAN, D. S. AND EvERMANN, B. W.—Fishes of North and Middle 
America, Bulletin 47, U. S. National Museum, Part 1, page 
111, published October 38, 1896. 


A short technical description of the Alligator Gar. 


Meek, S. E.—Fresh Water Fishes of Mexico North of the Isthmus 
of Tehuantepec, Field Columbian Museum, Publication 98, 
Zoological Series, Vol. V, page 7. 

A brief technical account of the Alligator Gar and a mention 
of its use as food at Tampico, Mexico. ; 


NEW ORLEANS TIMES-PICAYUNE, Sunday, January 22, 1922. 

A long article under the heading “Alligator Gar More Dan- 
gerous than So-Called ‘Man-Eater’ Shark.” ‘This article gives 
many instances where human beings have been attacked by Alli- 
gator Gars. The article was discussed at great length by Mr. 
Percy Viosca, Jr., in a personal letter to the author. 


Smitru, H. M.—Fishes of North Carolina, North Carolina Geolog- 
ical and Economic Survey, Vol. II, 1907, page ds. 


A short technical description of the Long-Billed Gar and some 
reference to its uses, mainly as food. 


Wiper, B. G.—‘“Gar-Pikes, Old and Young,’ Popular Science 
Monthly, Vol. XI, pages 1 and 186, May and June, 1877. 


A long account of the habits and growth of the Short-Nosed 
Gar, and some discussion of its relationships. 


[72] 


